The History of the Standard Oil Company

Journalist Ida Tarbell wrote her exposé of the monopolistic practices of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company as a serialized work in McClure's Magazine before the appearance of the first book edition of 1904. The breakup of Standard Oil in 1911 into thirty-four "baby Standards" can be attributed in large part to Tarbell's masterly investigative reporting, often labeled as muckraking. Ida Tarbell's childhood experiences were the inspiration behind the book. Her father, Franklin Tarbell, wo